An Introduction to Open Source and the Sakai Open Source Collaboration and Learning Environment: the Theory and the Practice

“Community source describes a model for the purposeful coordinating of work in a community. It is based on many of the principles of open source development efforts, but community source efforts rely more explicitly on defined roles, responsibilities, and funded commitments by community members than some open source development models.” Community Source Projects “Institutional Investments for Institutional Outcomes” Thanks to Brad Wheeler

Open Source Software It’s a license: a way of guaranteeing that the source code that makes up the software is always available for inspection, modification, redistribution Example licenses are General Public License (GPL), Apache, MIT, BSD These are of two basic types: 1) GPL – “viral” – which says if you change and redistribute, then the redistributed software is GPL/open 2) Apache – “open-open” – which says you can do what you want with changed, redistributed code; no requirement to keep it open

Open Source Software It’s also a practice: a way of building software where a larger community of developers is brought into the process of constructing the source code. Here a small set of core developers manage the contributions of a large set of, often globally distributed, code developers and bug fixers. Not all contributions get into the release of the open source software. This is a closely managed process. Many are called, not all are chosen.

How could this work? It’s been a surprise to everyone. How could a complex artifact be built from the very loosely coupled efforts of so widely distributed a community? The only way we can say it does is simply because it has: we have numerous empirical examples – Linux, Apache, Firefox, wiki’s, blogs, Sakai… For best investigation of a theory of open source see: Steven Weber, “The Success of Open Source” The radical reduction of communication costs was one contributor; nature of software itself another

Why Do It? Innovation: this is the key to the university’s future; if we can not innovate at a rapid rate, we will be left behind This involves innovation in research and administration practices as well as teaching and learning Control own future: we want to be flexible enough to move in the directions we want to, and be able to decide independently Values: Open source fits the academy’s conception of contributing to a common stock of knowledge and practices Cost: to be able to predict over the long term, as well as control in the short term

Fit with Require- ments Acquisition Cost Maintenance Cost Support Options Control of Destiny Build Your Own  Tailored to requirements  Full cost  Expensive permanent staff or contract  Discretionary  Full costs for changes  No on-going fees  Institution  Very high  Own the code Buy From Vendor  Standardized  Tailored via add-ons  Shared cost + vendor profit as license fee  Mandatory  Shared costs + vendor profit via annual license fees  Vendor(s)  Warranties and service level agreements  Very low  Limited/no access to modify the code  Any add-ons may complicate upgrades Build Open Source Community  Assembled from standardized and tailored  Nil, minimal, or shared  Discretionary  Nil, minimal, shared, or full  Institution  For fee vendors  Partners  Community  Very high  Full access to the source code Some of us got into this by looking at costs, control of our own destiny

Reflecting on Our Own Efforts Open Source Projects are crucial to supporting innovation in higher ed We have some examples now of ‘for higher ed, by higher ed’ OS efforts A literature is developing around the dynamics of open source communities What can we learn from experience and add to our common stock of knowledge; we are learning institutions, after all

Part of Much larger Whole Multiplying Open/Community Source Efforts ■ integration, standards…innovation Figuring out how to work together ■ Development, operations, maintenance, timing, evolution, building open source community in HE PKI Dartmouth Chandler/Westwood Twin Peaks Navigator

What is Sakai? A community and foundation—a group of people and resources supporting the code and each other, realizing large scale Open Source efficiencies A collaboration and learning product with: ■ A set of tools —written and supported by various groups and individuals—which have been tested and released as a unit An extensible framework for building collaboration tyools and services—provides basic capabilities to support a wide range of tools and services—teaching and research

Support Teaching and Learning

Support Distributed Research

Bringing research to the classroom Bringing research to the classroom

Tests & Quizzes Tool Discussion Tool Research Team Support OnLine Class Support Bringing it all online

The Sakai Foundation A Foundation to support a community- developed open source enterprise Collaboration and Learning Environment

What’s in a name? Sakai is named after Hiroyuki Sakai of the Food Channel Television program “Iron Chef”. Hiroyuki is renowned for his fusion of French and Japanese cuisine. And is just a fun guy.

Consolidation & Connection Home Grown Commercial Industry Shakeout Black Board WebCT Black Board + WebCT

Formed as a non-profit corporation to support, sustain, and promote Sakai. Initial foundation board is the Sakai project board with open nominations and election for three retiring Sakai board members. Annual budget of $1M from member contributions ■ Expect to have 8-10 staff positions funded by the Foundation focused on communication and coordination ■ Support two conferences per year at 100K each Membership fee is $10,000 per year for educational institutions, non-profits, or commercial partners. For institutions with a student base < 3000, the fee is $5000. Sakai Foundation Sakai Conference May 20 - June 2, 2005 Vancouver, BC Sakai is 100% open source and an open community. Membership is 100% optional.

Sakai Foundation Members Albany Medical CollegeMonash UniversityUniversity of California, Los Angeles Arizona State UniversityNagoya UniversityUniversity of California, Merced Australian National UniversityNew York UniversityUniversity of California, Santa Barbara Boston University School of ManagementNortheastern UniversityUniversity of Cambridge, CARET Brown UniversityNorth-West University (SA)University of Cape Town, SA Carleton CollegeNorthwestern UniversityUniversity of Colorado at Boulder Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of TeachingOhio State UniversityUniversity of Delaware Carnegie Mellon UniversityPortland State UniversityUniversity of Hawaii Ceritos Community CollegePrinceton UniversityUniversity of Hull Coast Community College DistrictRice UniversityUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Columbia UniversityRingling School of Art and DesignUniversity of Melbourne Cornell UniversityRoskilde University (Denmark)University of Michigan Dartmouth CollegeRutgers UniversityUniversity of Minnesota Florida Community College at JacksonvilleSimon Fraser UniversityUniversity of Missouri Foothill-De Anza Community CollegeStanford UniversityUniversity of Nebraska Franklin UniversityState University of New YorkUniversity of North Texas Georgetown UniversityStockholm UniversityUniversity of Oklahoma Harvard UniversitySURF/University of AmsterdamUniversity of South Africa (UNISA) Hosei University IT Research CenterSyracuse UniversityUniversity of Texas at Austin Indiana UniversityTexas State University - San MarcosUniversity of Toronto, Knowledge Media Design Institute Johns Hopkins UniversityTufts UniversityUniversity of Virginia Lancaster UniversityUniversidad Politecnica de Valencia (Spain)University of Washington Loyola University, ChicagoUniversitat de Lleida (Spain)University of Wisconsin, Madison Lubeck University of Applied SciencesUniversity College DublinVirginia Polytechnic Institute/University Maricopa County Community CollegeUniversity of ArizonaWhitman College Marist CollegeUniversity of California, Office of the ChancellorYale University MITUniversity of California Berkeley University of California, Davis 105 and Growing

Sakai Commercial Affiliates Apple

Apache Foundation = Independent Projects Tomcat Release Httpd Release Axis Release Pluto Release WSRP4J Committer Project Incubator

Sakai (product) Sakai Foundation = Projects + Coordination + Product Framework Release Schedule Web Services Samigo rWiki Melete Release ePortfolio Release Committer Project Provisional Project Foundation Staff Contributed Project

Sakai 2.1 Velocity Based Tools Legacy Framework Samigo JSF Tools JForum Provisional Melete Framework II Sakai Just under 1m lines of code MB

Sakai Distributed Development Sakai 2.1 was an international iniative by an expanding community Development Individual committers = 36 Institutions of higher-ed represented = 10 Commercial affiliates represented = 2 Continents represented = 4 ■ (North America, Europe, Asia, Africa) QA Individuals Testers = 52 Institutions of higher-ed represented = 27 Countries represented = 6 ■ (Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, The Netherlands, UK, USA)

The Sakai Product A Collaboration and Learning Environment— Suitable for use in teaching and learning, research collaboration, and ad Hoc group communication

Placing the Sakai Product A Collaboration and Learning Environment Collaboration (including eResearch) Teaching and Learning

Teaching and Research Collaboration Requirements Overlap Physics Research Collaboration Humanities Collaboration Teaching and Learning Grid Computing Visualization Data Repository Large Data Libraries Quizzes Grading Tools Syllabus SCORM Chat Discussion Resources

Sakai 2.1 Tools Presentation Profile / Roster Resources TwinPeaks - Repository Search Samigo - QTI Assessment Schedule Section Management Syllabus Web Content Wiki Worksite Setup WebDAV Announcements Assignments Chat Room Threaded Discussion Drop Box Archive Gradebook Melete - Content Editor Message Of The Day News/RSS Preferences

Melete – Lesson Authoring - Student View Navigation is created automatically content Authors can license their content

Open Source Portfolio – Tools for Self Publishing, Non-Traditional Evaluation, Life-long review of competencies and experiences Part of the Sakai Suite of Tools - contributed by a community open source effort Now the electronic portfolio tool is released in step with Sakai releases, and the OSP community is part of the Sakai Community

iTunes Tool in Sakai

Implementation Publishing 1200 Courses Site Highlights  Syllabus  Course Calendar  Lecture Notes  Assignments  Exams  Problem/Solution Sets  Labs and Projects  Simulations  Tools and Tutorials  Video Lectures

Sakai UM OCW Web Site or other Institutional Repository Publication Pipeline Digital Course Materials: (1) Exporting from CTools (2) Matching OCW Categories (3) Increasing Production Values (4) Standardizing (5) IP Management Raw Course Content Vetted OCW Content Teaching Research What Student Sees – Really, a Bunch of Stuff What World Sees – Targeted Re-use Publishing from Sakai MIT OCW process doesn’t scale. How automated can we make this process?

Sakai in Production Text

Sakai Enterprise Technologies Java1.4 Oracle Apache - SSL, mod_jk, WEBISO, virtual hosting MySql 4.1 Sakai is aimed at Enterprise Deployments. Sakai supports organizations with > 100,000 users in a single installation Sakai consists of technologies chosen to be common in Java Enterprise Environments. Sakai Tomcat 5.5 SpringHibernate Java Server Faces Velocity (legacy)

ToDo Presentation Persistence Browser ToDo Service Code My Monolithic ToDo List Servlet My Monolithic ToDo List Servlet Browser Service Oriented Architecture Persistence Service Interface (i.e. API)

Web Services and Web Applications Framework Application ToDo Code ToDo Layout Presentation WS Client Axis WS End Point Web Svcs Other Tools Layout Presentation Abstraction SAF—Kernel SAF—Common Services Other Services ToDo Service Service Interface (i.e. API)

Sakai Roadmap Going forward, Sakai needs to increasingly function as a component of a larger enterprise architecture along with many other applications. Each enterprise will evolve their mix of applications independently over time.

Sakai Foundation Thrust Areas Improve our current product ■ Complete work in progress ■ Documentation ■ Practices / Developer / Installer / User ■ Licensing / Intellectual Property Iterative Improvement on the Sakai Product ■ Guided by the Sakai Requirements process Standards Activity Make Connections to Other Products (Web 2.0) ■ Other Collaboration and Learning Environments ■ Portals ■ Repositories

Short-Term Technical Agenda Finish the Sakai 2.0 Framework ■ Refactor to separate legacy and framework ■ Improve Import and Export (support IMS Content Packaging) ■ Clean up Presentation Support (JSF) ■ Improve Support for Digital Repositories (DR OSID/ Sakaibrary / Twin Peaks) ■ Support Course Management API ■ Improve Accessibility of User Interface Documentation ■ Broaden coverage of developer documents, organize, and publish on the web to suppliment existing Java Doc ■ Work towards a “Sakai Devlopers Book”

Sakai Requirements Process Gathers and prioritize use cases and refine design documents to set long-term strategy for the Sakai Product. Anyone can submit a requirement (using JIRA). Two phases of prioritization ■ Community - wide (anyone) ■ Sakai Member Representatives Sakai Staff (Project Coordinator) attempt to “match make” between high priority requirements and community developers Iterative Process - Once for each major Sakai release ■ First round produced 385 requirements.

Sakai Requirements (Sample) REQ-282 Users should have more information and control over site import REQ-26 s Should Contain Site URL and Item URL REQ-173 Chat should allow users to search for messages from a particular user REQ-159 Graphical content in rich text editor REQ-65 Archive should be deep-linkable/bookmarkable REQ-375 Timed Release of documents/files in Resources tool REQ-109 Search across site and sites REQ-124 Add SCORM Player to Sakai REQ-129 Support for Learning Design and other Work Flow Engines

Sakai and Standards Sakai needs to use its position and resources to influence ever richer standards so as to insure an ecology of many different collaboration and learning systems which are highly interoperable. JSR-168 Portlet / WSRP 1.0 JSR-286 Portlet 2.0 / WSRP 2.0 IMS Tool Interoperability IMS Common Cartridge OKI OSID Version 3

Sakai and Web 2.0 Web 2.0 is about making sure data is available in some form beyond just displayed in the Sakai Tool Set. Formats ■ RSS / Atom ■ Resource Description Framework (RDF) ■ HTML Protocols ■ RSS / getData / SOAP / REST Consuming Applications ■ Portals ■ Google ■ delic.io.us

Sakai Integration Efforts Repositories ■ Read/Search - DR OSID / Sakaibrary ■ Writable repositories / DR OSID / JSR 170 ■ Export / long-term archival - Fedora / DSpace Learning Design - LAMS / CopperCore Collaborative Learning Environments (IMS TI) ■ Moodle / ATutor ■ Blackboard / WebCT / Angel Portals - JSR-168 portals / PHP based portals Desktop - PLEX / VUE / Apple RDF - Haystack / Piggybank / Welkin

A Sakai Web 2.0 Future... interoperability and data portability are key elements... EnterpriseDirectory StudentInformation AuthoringEnvironment PersonalLearningEnvironment PortalEnvironment CollaborationEnvironment ContentManagement AgileDevelopment DataRepository

Sakai: More Information Main site: ■ Bugs: ■ bugs.sakaiproject.org bugs.sakaiproject.org Sakai-wide collaboration area ■ collab.sakaiproject.org collab.sakaiproject.org ■ ■